A paedophile who “thought it was OK” to have sex with a child has been jailed after being snared by a vigilante group.

Adil Sultan sent explicit messages to a girl he believed was aged 14 before arranging to meet her for sex.

But the 39-year-old was instead greeted by paedophile hunters ‘Guardians of the North’ who had set up a fake profile on the internet to expose him.

Footage shows Sultan being confronted by members of the Guardians group after he travelled from his home in Victoria Road, in central Middlesbrough to Sunderland, thinking he was meeting a girl called Laura.

He was jailed for 17 months at Newcastle Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register and given a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.